The group announced Friday that it would not hold the second edition of the parade and festival — set for June 7 to 9 — because of costs associated with having a public event under a new city ordinance.

“As you can imagine, we are heartbroken and disappointed for the Fox Valley LGBTQ+ community, our partners and sponsors, and our enthusiastic supporters and volunteers. We’d like to thank them all for their steadfast support,” Indivisible Aurora said in its announcement.

Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin issued a statement in response by saying he was disappointed in the group’s decision. He said he met with organizers to help save the event.

Indivisible Aurora said its board of directors was notified at the beginning of April that the cost to hold the parade alone would increase four-fold over last year under new rules in the city, according to the announcement on its website.

“That we were told 66 days before the kickoff of festival activities was problematic. Our fundraising model was designed with last year’s economics in mind. While we anticipated an increase we never imagined, nor was it ever suggested, that it would be four-times,” the announcement said.

“We reached out to sponsors and partners. We discussed cutting back where we could. We looked at every line item with renewed vigor. We worked closely with Mayor Irvin and his staff to identify additional savings — all of this in the hopes of saving the festival,” organizers said in the statement.

Last year's inaugural Pride Parade drew thousands of people to downtown Aurora. Organizers said they were looking to expand on their success with a larger weekend of festivities, including a 5K race, market place and speaker series.

“In the end we could not find a fiscally responsible way forward. Quite simply, the new economics make it impossible for us to ensure that we can stage the kind of Pride Festival that would make Aurora, the #LGBTQ+ community we support, and us proud,” the statement said.

The mayor was hoping the group would hold off on a decision to cancel the parade.

“I was informed about financial concerns and the pending decision to cancel the event. I asked them to hold on their decision. We agreed to review the event plan and associated costs and regroup,” Irvin said in his Friday statement.

He said while the actual cost of the festival was presented to Indivisible Aurora April 1, the city has been meeting with group officials since January and told them to expect an increase in cost from last year based on the new special events ordinance being discussed, Irvin said.

The new ordinance was passed by the Aurora City Council on Jan. 22.

“As part of the ordinance, costs for public safety personnel, security fencing for the parade route and the like are passed along to organizers of private events — such as the Pride Festival — and cannot be paid using public funds through the city,” the mayor said in the statement.

“In the past two days, the city worked with law enforcement to provide a security plan which would reduce costs but still ensure the safety of participants, shortened the parade route to reduce costs while still having a quality event and combed through expenses line-by-line to reduce costs,” Irvin said in the statement.

“Today, the city proposed a new budget which was reduced overall by 27%,” he said in the Friday statement. “In addition, the city helped to secure a local grant to offset even more costs — all in good faith efforts to keep the progress and planning of the 2019 Pride Festival in motion.”

Based on a budget of $16,000 given to the city by Indivisible Aurora on Wednesday, the final funding gap for the festival is now less than $10,000, which the city offered could be paid in installments throughout the next year, Irvin said in the statement.

“Unfortunately, after those sincere efforts, the board of directors of Indivisible Aurora still made the decision to cancel the event,” Irvin said.

He said that last year, the city absorbed much of the cost for the inaugural event, “but we simply cannot afford to do so – under ordinance and because of equity — using public dollars for private events,” Irvin said in the statement.

Irvin indicated he was still hopeful the event can be held this summer.

“With just about two months until the scheduled weekend, our hope is Indivisible Aurora will receive the necessary monetary support it needs. We have seen what happens when a community comes together for a worthy cause. A money gap of less than $10,000 shouldn’t stop the momentum gained in a community filled with passion and pride,” Irvin said.

About 50 people interested in knowing what happened to cause the cancellation of the parade attended a Saturday meeting of Indivisible Aurora in downtown Aurora.

Executive Director Chuck Adams of the group said that money and time were the issues.

Adams said the group only reluctantly went into the specifics of the financial issues involved in its Friday announcement.

“It potentially feeds a divisive conversation and make one side look unreasonable when both sides have been reasonable,” he said.

He said there were financial and timing issues for people who were making arrangements to build floats and participate in the parade.

“We were clear in our conversation with the city this week that this wasn't a situation that if the city got close, we would assume debt for the rest,” Adams said. “We were adamant that as a grassroots nonprofit that raised a little more than $15,000 all of last year we could not take debt. All of us have a legal responsibility for the fiscal health of this organization.

“Assuming thousands of dollars in debt is a non-starter,” Adams said. “Doing so would greatly diminish our capacity to do the work we do in the community in partnership with other organizations on immigration and refugee rights, cultural outreach, voter education and gender equity issues.”

At the meeting, some asked if, despite the cancellation of this year’s event, there might be a Pride Parade in 2020 in Aurora.

“Later this summer we will have an announcement for 2020,” Adams said. “We need to lick our wounds and take a break.”